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Atari 2600 – Revenge of the Beefstake Tomatoes

Another action game by Fox but this one is not based on a movie.
Although its fair to say that is was heavily inspired by the 80’s masterpiece Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
What’s interesting is that this game was promoted at the Superbowl. It makes no sense to me why Fox would put such a weird and niche game at the forefront of their advertising efforts… but I kinda love it.

I feel like there’s an analogy to today’s political climate in here… I just can’t put my finger on it.

You play as a spray can of some sorts. You have to suck in either a pink, yellow or green brick and squirt it in the corresponding wall. The goal is to have three walls to guard you against seed-spitting tomato plants.

Of course, that’s no easy task.
The bricks you have to absorb change their color constantly and you have to finish the lowest wall first. Depending on the difficulty setting you might also run into angry Beefsteak Tomatoes, little cherry tomatoes and brick eating plants that destroy parts of your wall.

The game gives you many options and its even possible to play with infinite lives.

That’s a really nice feature tbh.
Sometimes you just wanna lean back and enjoy some meditative gaming without feeling like a cheater and RofBT gives you that option. I’d wish more games would include that.

The gameplay on ‘normal’ mode (four lives and increasing difficulty) is fairly challenging. You are under constant attack but it’s ultimately your choice of how to build the wall and how hard the resulting navigation will be.
Even if you end up with a weird maze you can still get by thanks to the fast and fluid movement of your spray can.

The only real downside is the overall presentation.
The game looks very bland and blocky and lacks details to clearly convey what every sprite is supposed to represent.
It’s also almost completely silent except for the occasional *phewphew* and an uninspired jingle at the start and end of every round.

Overall tho this is a neat little game with a refreshing backstory. Gets a little stale after a while but its fun in short bursts.

Revenge of the Beefsteak Tomatoes is another forgotten oddity for the Atari 2600 worthy of more attention.